Leno Defeats Letterman, Kimmel While Fallon Wins Over Ferguson, ‘Nightline’ in All Key Demos and Total Viewers

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — July 15, 2013 — NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” dominated their broadcast time-period competition for the holiday week of July 1-5.

Leno bested “Late Show With David Letterman” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” while Fallon outperformed “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” and “Nightline” in every key ratings category: adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers.

Note: It was an atypical holiday week that featured mostly encore programming, with all Thursday and Friday results excluded due to the July 4 holiday.

Versus the holiday week a year ago, Leno is up 2% in viewers 18-49 (1.079 million from 1.053 million) and up 24% in viewers 18-34 (399,000 vs. 321,000), while Fallon is up 7% in viewers 18-49 (609,000 vs. 567,000) and up 33% in viewers 18-34 (272,000 vs. 204,000).

Leno has now delivered bigger 18-49 audiences than “Late Show with David Letterman” for the last 33 weeks in a row and topped “Kimmel” for 23 of their 26 head-to-head weeks. In total viewers, Leno has out-delivered “Late Show” for 37 weeks in a row and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” for 26 of 26 weeks.

Fallon has now generated bigger 18-49 audiences than “Late Late Show” for 38 of the last 39 weeks and prevailed in total viewers for 35 of the last 37 weeks. Versus “Nightline” in their head-to-head half-hour, Fallon has out-delivered the ABC series for 26 weeks in a row in viewers 18-49 and 21 of the last 23 weeks in total viewers.

Ratings reflect “live plus same day” data from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise noted. Season-to-date figures are averages of “live plus seven day” data except for the two most recent weeks, which are “live plus same day.”

WEEKLY AVERAGES

(According to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for the week of July 1-5. Ratings reflect “live plus same day” data from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise noted. Season-to-date figures are averages of “live plus seven day” data except for the two most recent weeks, which are “live plus same day.”)